IAF chopper carrying CDS Rawat crashes: When air accidents made big headlines

An Indian Air Force chopper carrying senior defence officers, including Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat has crashed at Coonoor in Tamil Nadu, news agency PTI has said quoting sources. The crash took place in the Nilgiris, according to reports. Some injured people have been taken to hospital.

As per ANI, CDS Bipin Rawat, his staff and some family members were in the Mi-series chopper that crashed between Coimbatore and Sulur in Tamil Nadu. Search and rescue operations launched from nearby bases. Sources have revealed that four bodies have been recovered from the crash site. However, identities haven't yet been revealed.

The tragedy is a grim reminder of the deaths in aerial crashes involving several high-profile people including YS Rajasekhara Reddy, Sanjay Gandhi, Madhavrao Scindia, actress Soundarya etc.

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YS Rajasekhara Reddy

The 2009 Andhra Pradesh helicopter crash occurred on 2 September near Rudrakonda Hill, 40 nautical miles (74 km) from Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India. The helicopter was a Bell 430 helicopter owned by the Andhra Pradesh government and registered VT-APG. Fatalities included YS Rajasekhara Reddy, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.

The chopper of the senior Congress leader crashed in a forest while flying in a Bell 430 to Chitoor district in Andhra Pradesh. His body was traced 27 hours after the helicopter went missing on 3 September, 2009.

Sanjay Gandhi

Congress MP Sanjay Gandhi, the younger son of Indira Gandhi and Feroze Gandhi, died instantly from head wounds in an air crash on 23 June 1980 near Safdarjung Airport in New Delhi. He was flying a new aircraft of the Delhi Flying Club, and, while performing an aerobatic manoeuvre over his office, lost control and crashed.

GMC Balayogi

Telugu Desam Party MP and Lok Sabha Speaker GMC Balayogi died on 3 March, 2002, when a Bell 206 helicopter, crashed in Kaikalur in Krishna district. He was aged 50.

Madhavrao Scindia

Madhavrao Scindia died at the age of 56, in a plane crash in Motta village, which is on the outskirts of Mainpuri district of Uttar Pradesh, on 30 September 2001. The plane caught fire when it was above Bhainsrauli village.

Scindia, a veteran parliamentarian and rated as a Congress prime ministerial candidate before the 1999 Lok Sabha elections in the aftermath of the controversy over Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, was on his way to address a rally in Kanpur.

Taruni Sachdev

A child actress, who starred in the Bollywood film Paa with superstar Amitabh Bachchan, was killed in a plane crash in northern Nepal in 2012. Taruni Sachdev, 14, played Bachchan's friend in the award-winning film about progeria, a rare genetic condition.

She and her mother were among the 13 Indians killed in the crash.

The plane was carrying 21 people and hit a hillside as it tried to land at Jomsom airport. Six people survived the crash.

S Mohan Kumaramangalam

Kumaramangalam was killed in the crash of Indian Airlines Flight 440 on May 31, 1973, at the age of 56.[6] Many of the dead were unidentifiable, but his body was identified by a Parker pen and a hearing aid he wore.

Actress Soundarya

In 2004, leading South Indian actress Soundarya was among four people killed when the aircraft carrying them to Andhra Pradesh to campaign for the BJP crashed minutes after it took off from Jakkur airfield near Bangalore.

Soundarya’s producer-brother Amarnath, BJP worker Ramesh Kadam and pilot Joy Phillips were the others who died.

Dorjee Khandu

On 30 April 2011, the helicopter carrying Dorjee Khandu, former chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh and four other people on a trip from Tawang to Itanagar disappeared. On 2 May, the aerial search for Khandu was halted due to inclement weather, necessitating a move to ground search by the Indian Army, police, SSB and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police.

Personnel were searching a heavily forested 66 square kilometer section of West Kameng district, where satellites detected possible plane remnants. Witnesses said they heard a large explosion on the morning of 30 April, almost around the same time when the helicopter went missing.

P Chidambaram, Home Minister of India confirmed the news of the death of Dorjee Khandu on the morning of 5 May, 2011.

Homi Jehangir Bhabha

Homi Jehangir Bhabha, the creative thinker behind India's Three Stage Nuclear Power Programme, lost his life when the Air India Flight 101 he was travelling in crashed near Mont Blanc, on 24 January 1966.

His death was a great blow to the nuclear program in India. The crash was rumored as murder attempt, which involved the name of CIA, to paralyze India's nuclear program and military power.

OP Jindal

O P Jindal, Haryana's then power minister and a noted industrialist, and state agriculture minister Surendra Singh were killed when the chopper carrying them developed a technical snag and went down near Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh on March 31, 2005.

With inputs from agencies

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